Disease-resistant elm cultivars Their potential role in the conservation of the White-letter Hairstreak 2020 REPORT A H Brookes 1 | P a g e + Disease-resistant elm cultivars, Butterfly Conservation trials report, 2020 Contents: 1. Abstract 2. Introduction 3. List of trees 4. Performance summary 5. Availability in the UK 6. The butterfly 7. New developments 8. The trees described 9. Recommended trees 10. Bibliography 11. Suppliers 1. Abstract The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Branch of Butterfly Conservation (BC) initiated trials of elm cultivars and species resistant to Dutch Elm Disease (DED) in 2000, in fulfilment of Objective 5 for the White-letter Hairstreak (WLH) in BC’s South Central Regional Action Plan: to evaluate their potential as host plants for the butterfly, now on the IUCN Red List as ‘in imminent danger of extinction’. This report, originally published in 2010, has been substantially revised in the light of the ‘Princeton’ fiasco. ‘Princeton’, an American Elm cultivar, was widely promoted in the UK without having been tested for resistance by the European method of inoculation. This method is far more invasive, to reflect the much greater vector efficacy of the larger elm bark beetle, Scolytus scolytus, not found in the US. The loss of many ‘Princeton’ elms to DED obliged the relegation of other American cultivars until proven here. In 2015, the White-letter Hairstreak was found breeding on the DED-resistant cultivars LUTECE and ‘Sapporo Autumn Gold’. The discovery of the WLH on LUTECE is particularly significant as the tree has a very different periodicity from the reputedly favourite native host, wych elm, suggesting the insect is possessed of a considerable adaptability which could see it breeding on all the high-resistance cultivars featured in this report. 2. Introduction The elm trials are located at five sites in southern Hampshire. The sites feature diverse ground conditions, from arid rendzinas atop an outlier of the South Downs to waterlogged London Clays below 1m A S L along the shores of Portsmouth Harbour. This report focusses on 12 cultivars available in Europe with a scientifically proven ‘5 out of 5’ resistance to DED, and the anomalous species Ulmus laevis which, whilst devoid of any innate resistance, is rarely infected owing to a triterpene in its bark rendering it unpalatable to the vector Scolytus bark beetles. The high DED- resistance of the cultivars featured in this report has been determined in Europe by the Institut Nationale pour la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in France, the Istituto per la Protezione delle Piante (IPP) in Italy, the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, and Eisele GmbH in Germany. Testing in all instances was by inoculation with unnaturally high concentrations (10⁶ spores / ml) of the DED pathogen O. novo-ulmi subsp. americana. The BC trials have therefore focussed on the growth and appearance of the trees, together with their tolerance of environmental stresses such as exposure, drought, and waterlogging. 2 | P a g e 3a. List of highly DED-resistant trees included in the trials CULTIVAR ORIGIN ‘Ademuz’ Universidad Politecnica Madrid, Spain ‘Columella’ Dorschkamp, Wageningen, Netherlands ‘Fiorente’ IPP, Florence, Italy ‘Morfeo’ IPP, Florence, Italy ‘Nanguen’ = LUTÈCE * Dorschkamp, Wageningen, Netherlands ‘New Horizon’ WARF, Wisconsin, US ‘Plinio’ IPP, Florence, Italy ‘Rebona’ WARF, Wisconsin, US ‘San Zanobi’ IPP, Florence, Italy ‘Sapporo Autumn Gold’ WARF, Wisconsin, US ‘Wanoux’ = VADA Dorschkamp, Wageningen, Netherlands ‘Wingham’ IPP, Florence, Italy (as FL493) SPECIES ORIGIN Ulmus laevis Various locations in Europe 3.b Other elms included in the trials Below is a list of other cultivars and species planted. These are not described here on account of their resistance to DED or other diseases in Europe being found to be either substandard or, as with most of the American cultivars, simply unknown. CULTIVAR ORIGIN ‘Arno’ IPP, Florence, Italy ‘Lewis & Clark’ = PRAIRIE EXPEDITION North Dakota State University, US ‘Morton’ = ACCOLADE Morton Arboretum, Illinois, US ‘Morton’ = ACCOLADE openly pollinated Morton Arboretum, Illinois, US ‘Prospector’ USDA National Arboretum, US ‘Valley Forge’ USDA National Arboretum, US SPECIES ORIGIN Ulmus davidiana Liaoning Province, China Ulmus davidiana var. japonica Sapporo, Japan Ulmus gaussenii Anhui Province, China Ulmus glabra Mount Šimonka, Slovakia Ulmus laciniata Sapporo, Japan Ulmus parvifolia Osaka, Japan * Names in upper case, or different font, are the ‘selling names’ used in commerce, as opposed to the registered cultivar names which are always written in lower case within single inverted commas. Unlike registered cultivar names, selling names may vary from country to country. 3 | P a g e Figure 1. LUTECE elm, Newport, IoW, hosting the WLH in 2015 Photo: Caroline Dudley 4. Performance Most of the elms are hybrid cultivars, with Asiatic ancestors U. wallichiana or U. pumila, from whom they have inherited their anti-fungal genes. However, environmental conditions in the Far East are, with few exceptions, very different from those of southern England. A critical aspect of the trials was therefore the assessment of the trees’ adaptation to a temperate maritime climate. Many of the cultivars also differ in appearance from the European species, often being significantly smaller with uncharacteristic foliage, while others grew very slowly or exhibited poor structure. Ergo: some would not, for all their virtues, look at home in the wider English countryside, and better retained as ornamentals in the urban environment. 5. Availability in the UK On 1 January 2018 strict import controls were introduced by DEFRA to reduce the risk of the accidental import of alien phytophtherae unknown in the UK, in particular Elm Yellows (phloem necrosis). Accordingly, all consignments of elms from the EU must now carry phytopassports declaring their area of origin free of elm diseases. This has meant the termination of all imports of the worthy elm cultivars raised by IPP Italy owing to the prevalence of Elm Yellows across much of the country. However, these same trees are still reviewed in this report as there is no restriction on their propagation in the UK from specimens already established here, cuttings of which may be sourced via the author, provided they are not used for commercial purposes. 4 | P a g e 6. The butterfly The White-letter Hairstreak Satyrium w-album is a monophagic species entirely reliant on Elm. Larvae have been very occasionally found feeding on oak and bird cherry in continental Europe, but these occurrences are regarded as random. Moreover, it is sexually mature elm which is preferred as the larvae hatch in mid-March, a number of weeks before the leaves flush, and immediately feed on the elm flowers before progressing to the seeds. (Figure 2). However, recent research by Bink et al. in the Low Countries has discovered that larvae hatching on flowerless, trees are able to survive by remaining in diapause for up to six more weeks, ie. until the leaves flush, provided climatic conditions allow them to rehydrate on hatching. This phenomenon could explain the occasional sightings of the butterfly on English elm suckers. The White-letter Hairstreak is also endemic to much of the Far East, including Siberia and Japan, where it thrives on several of the elms used in hybridization or planted in their own right in Europe and the US. However, the butterfly is not found in North America. The WLH was found to have colonized elms at two of the BC plantations, Great Fontley and Nelson Reservoir, in 2019. The butterfly had already been found breeding on the cultivar ‘Nanguen’ (selling name: LUTÈCE) planted at Newport, Isle of Wight, on ‘New Horizon’ at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, London, and on ‘Sapporo Autumn Gold’ in Hertfordshire. NB. The French natural history unit VarWild has produced a 14 minute film of the lifecycle of the WLH, with close-up photography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdDNGF2HDr0 Figure 2. White-letter Hairstreak larva on elm flower. Photo: Peter Eeles 5 | P a g e 7. New developments Spanish Ulmus minor clones The discovery by the Escuela de Montes, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, of native Field Elms Ulmus minor with a very high resistance to Dutch elm disease must represent the most significant development in the 90-year history of European elm breeding. The trees are currently undergoing assessment at other stations around Spain before their release to commerce; their ability to sucker readily from roots should make them excellent candidates for hedgerow and thicket planting. Hybridizations in England and Germany In England, the late Dr David Herling was successful in 2019 in hybridizing the highly-resistant Italian clone FL493 (later named ‘Wingham’) with a mature field elm Ulmus minor discovered at Tonge Mill in Kent. Named ‘Arcadia’, one of its progeny has proven completely asymptomatic after inoculation with the pathogen, as supervised by Forest Research, Alice Holt. Butterfly Conservation members in Hampshire and Wiltshire have also initiated trials, with seeds from openly-pollinated cultivars such as ‘Morfeo’. Meanwhile in Germany, the Eisele nursery in Darmstadt has raised two highly resistant, as yet unregistered, complex hybrid cultivars of its own; patents pending. Import restrictions Long-overdue restrictions on tree imports from the EU, introduced by DEFRA on 1 January 2018, have reduced the range of cultivars imported into the UK. In response, attempts are being made to persuade British nurseries to obtain Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) to raise and sell such trees in the UK. However, most British nurseries only propagate trees for forestry, often by the million, and there has so far been little interest expressed in raising relatively small numbers of ‘amenity tree’ cultivars for conservation and landscaping, necessitating the purchase of PBR. The import- ation of all trees from Europe may well be subjected to two years’ quarantine, as advocated by Forest Research, in recognition of the threat from alien phytophtherae, 17 of which have been accidentally introduced to the UK in the past 30 years.